Case Study – Clearing A Blocked Sewer

Case Study: Mrs Herborn’s Blocked Sewer

The Killer Toilet in Balmain…nothing sweet about this blocked sewer clearing job…

We’ve seen our share of blocked drain problems, but this blocked sewer problem was a little out of the ordinary.

We arrived and thought we had a regulation stock standard sewer clearing job. We assessed that there was a sewer blockage between the bathroom and the Boundary Trap. We noticed that the blockage was confined to the toilet. Lucky for us (and Mrs Herborn) we had already professionally installed a sewer access point outside his toilet which made it easy for us to insert the high pressure water jetter (our preferred choice of weapon for this application). We cleared a huge amount of tree root matter, and also inspected the sewer with a drain camera – the jetter had done its job and the line had been professionally cleaned out.

We then conducted some tests with toilet paper and left the job confident that the sewer was clear.

Two days later came the call from Mrs Herborn to say her toilet was blocked again!

Needless to say – we dropped everything and headed straight over! When we say GUARANTEED – we mean it!

We immediately inserted the camera back in the sewer – there were no blockages. Everything else in the house was draining beautifully. By this stage, we were starting to scratch our heads!

We pushed the drain camera further into the sewer – right into the toilet itself – what we found was truly amazing. A clip on toilet deodorizer was wedged in the back of the toilet!

It would allow some paper through (this is how we missed it in our first visit) when a lot of paper was flushed – it eventually blocked.

The happy ending is we were able to dislodge it and remove it from the sewer. Another blocked sewer clearing job in Sydney successfully completed!

The moral of the story – Don’t use clip on deodorizers or you’ll get a blocked sewer!